This Is Your Home, And This Is Your People

(By Andres Villatoro) – On April 28, 2007, 68,000 people gathered in 15 major cities across the United States to remind U.S. and world leaders that there are over 1.5 million people displaced in Northern Uganda;1.5 million people who have been kicked out from their homes and villages by foreigners and through war. I know a couple of us had the privilege of participating in this great event in Chicago and Hallelujah! We did something because we were shocked. Everyone who knew about it was shocked that such injustice was happening in Africa and was so determined to let it be known that we spent a whole night in cardboard boxes to show our protest. What I find ironic about this event, however, is that in these major cities, including our Chicago, almost the same thing is happening not too far away from where these protests were happening. We hear less about people being forced out of their homes and communities by outsiders in America. It is happening though.

City programs call it Urban renewal but it can also be called gentrification. Gentrification is when middle to upper class people, all of sudden, want to live in the city again. The government, in order to get more money out of land, goes into existing communities that are often poor or old and fixes them up, putting a Starbucks here, or luxury condos there. Rents go up and people are indirectly forced to sell their home and are left to go find another place to live because they could never afford to live in the neighborhood they once called home. This is happening everywhere, even in Chicago neighborhoods like Humboldt Park and Pilsen. Not only does gentrification kick people out of their homes and their communities (which is everything some of these people have ever known), but it also kicks out social services for the poor, which in turn forces the poor to leave because of lack of resources. This has affected The Salvation Army, being a social services organization, too. The Evangeline Booth lodge, for example, is a family homeless shelter owned by the army. It is located on the north side of Chicago and has recently been given a lot of pressure to move out of the area because the now rich neighborhood does not want them there. They do not want the homeless or the poor walking around their streets. It is on our front doorstops people. Look around you.

I think it is great that as Christians we understand that the world does need desperate help, and Displace ME was a great way to show how passionate we are about justice and about our desire to help Uganda. However, if you are going to be interested in justice and helping the world, don’t just do it because your friends think it’s cool or because it’s the cool Christian, or cool Salvationist, thing to do. It is our duty. “Dear friends, you must NEVER GET TIRED OF DOING RIGHT” (1 Thes 3.13). May your passion and your heart break over what you see out your front door as well as what you hear about elsewhere. Let us not forget our brothers and sisters here at home, for they need help as much as anyone else does. Learn more about gentrification and pray about it please. The next few years are crucial to many cities as to how they will handle so many changes so fast. Remember, this is your home and this is your people.